Python: Built Different

Guido Van Rossum, the creator of the Python programming language, was frustrated with the state of computer programming in the late 1980s. Programming languages were too complex, and at the same time, too loose with their formatting requirements. This led to large codebases with complex scripts poorly written and rarely documented.

Merely running a simple program could take a long time, as the code would need to be type-checked (variables declared correctly and assigned to the correct data type) and compiled (converted from high-level code written in text files into the assembly language or machine code understood by the CPU).

As the Dutch programmer completed professional work on the ABC programming language, where he had learned much about language design, he decided he wanted to turn his grips about the limits of ABC and other languages into a hobby.

With a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Amsterdam, his hobbies tended towards the computer, but he did have a love for Monty Python, the British comedy series. So, he combined his passions and created Python, which is now used for all kinds of programmatic solutions. Today Python is everywhere, in the internet and appliances and cars and so much more. Because of its ubiquity and its simplicity, it has been adopted by the GIS software ecosystem as a standard programming tool.